The eight prints that comprise the
Brushstroke Figures series are related in their subject matter to
paintings begun in the early 1980s and sculpture, including Brushstroke Head IV (Barcelona Head) (1987;
edition 6). In all of them the artist combined brushstrokes –
variously composed of diagonals, Benday dots, hard edged cartoon
strokes, and realistic brushstrokes – to suggest faces and figures.

Brushstroke
Figures are Lichtenstein’s first print project with Graphicstudio,
where work began in February 1987. Each of the images in the series has
a collage prototype, created by the artist in his New York studio. The
prints combine screenprint, lithography, woodcut, and waxtype to create
rich and varied surfaces that recall the layers and textures of their
collage sources while at the same time exploiting the distinctive
textural properties achievable with each print medium.

The
fluid, wash effects of the lithography brushstrokes were created by a
mixture of copier toner and alcohol, applied to the plate with a rag.
For the woodcut stroke, two types of wood – birch, which is smooth, and
walnut, which displays more grain – were used, their selection for
individual elements based on the desired surface texture. Three methods
of woodcutting were employed throughout the series: blocks were cut by
hand; a router was also used, creating for instance, the precise
diagonal lines of Nude (Corlett
233); and the helio-relief process developed at Graphicstudio was also
employed, producing the black Benday dot brushstroke in The Mask (Corlett 227) for example.

For
heliorelief, the dot pattern was photomechanically transferred to the
block by first placing a film negative of the image in contact with a
woodblock to which a light-sensitive emulsion had been adhered. After
the block was exposed to light, the emulsion that had been shielded from
the light under the dark areas of the film negative remained soft and
could be washed away. But where light had penetrated the film the
emulsion hardened, leaving a protective coating on the block to define
the image areas. Sandblasting was then used to cut away the unprotected
areas of the block, leaving the dot pattern in relief.

Lichtenstein
was the first artist to use the waxtype process developed at
Graphicstudio, a screenprint process that uses pigmented beeswax instead
of printer’s ink. The wax is squeegeed through a specially prepared
steel screen, often in several successive layers. The printed wax can
then be heated with a microtorch and burnished to produce a smooth,
encaustic finish. The wax also can be left unheated, resulting in a
matte surface, which retains the fabric-like texture of the screen.
Additional nuances of colour and texture were obtained in some prints by
applying dry pigment to the wax after it had been screened – aluminum
powder was applied to the wet wax of the grey background in Grandpa
(Corlett 231), for example, and dry gold pigment was brushed through
the screen over the heated and burnished blue brushstroke in Blonde (Corlett 230).

Seven of the prints in this series were co-published by Waddington
Graphics and Graphicstudio and have been exhibited together. The
eighth, Roads Collar (Corlett
228), was published by Graphicstudio and was included, along with the
other seven works, in the subscription programme of the workshop.